PPLI Primary Guidelines REVISED EDITION - Flipbook - Page 39
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Language and Languages in the Primary School Some guidelines for teachers by David Little and Déirdre Kirwan
Table 2: Numerals in multiple languages
Gaeilge
French
Spanish
Italian
English
German
Ukrainian
Polish
1
aon
un
uno
uno
one
Eins
odyn
jeden
2
dó
deux
dos
due
two
zwei
dva
dwa
3
trí
trois
tres
tre
three
drei
try
trcy
4
ceathair
quatre
cuatro
quattro
four
vier
chotyry
cztery
Etc.
Using logainmneacha to develop awareness of how languages can be connected to and/or influence another
•
Start with the name of the school’s locality. Explore, identify and discuss linguistic connections and insights.
•
Compare Irish place names with their English equivalents (Table 3). Identify similarities and differences in
pronunciation and orthography. Link to History and Geography, e.g., the Irish word baile (“town”) may derive
from the Norman bailey (as in motte-and-bailey), which was the part of a Norman fortification where most of the
inhabitants lived.
•
Place names give a good opportunity to discuss the genitive case, e.g., Cluain Meala. Where does meala come
from? Mil is the Irish word for honey. Cluain Meala is the “meadow of the honey”: mil becomes meala in the
genitive case, when we use of in English to denote ownership, e.g., the man’s coat is the coat of the man.30
•
Explain that we can learn the correct form of the genitive case from regularly used phrases – scoil: geata na scoile;
bord: dath an bhóird; spéir: dath na spéire; grian: solas na ghréine; bóthar: síos an bhóthair; teach / tig: bean an tí;
cathair: lár na cathrach; mil: mí na meala; sliabh: ar thaobh an tsléibhe; abha: ar bhruach na h-abhann – and from
poems, songs, rhymes, prayers, etc. Pupils copy these phrases into their plurilingual copybook.
•
How do pupils’ HLs deal with the genitive case?
•
Find more place names beginning with ‘Clon’ – Clondalkin, Clontibret, etc. What would those place names be in
the MFL and pupils’ HLs?
Table 3: Some place names in English and Irish
English
Gaeilge
Discussion
MFL
Ballymore
Baile Mór
Similarities/diferences. Explain your answer.
Can you find out what this town
would be called in the MFL?
Clonmel
Cluain Meala
Cluain = meadow
Meala (mil) = honey
Why the diference between meala and mil? (genitive case)
30
Some may say it is too early at this stage to refer to the genitive case. We have the example, however, of three children (Lithuanian, Polish and
Romanian speakers) in Fourth Class discussing the various forms of the word for hippopotamus in their respective languages. They said the word
changed when making reference to anything that was “of the hippopotamus”. This discussion took place independently of the teacher.
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